


Rx

by kisahawklin



Series: Rx [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Author's Favorite, Community: Sweet Charity, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Orgasm Denial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-01
Updated: 2009-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:37:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evan and Radek get stuck offworld.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rx

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scheherezhad](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=scheherezhad).



"Rodney," Zelenka whined as Evan walked into the lab, "you are head of the science division. It is _your_ responsibility."

McKay looked too smug for this to end well, Evan thought. Sheppard had already passed the mission off to Evan - who didn't get to argue, thank you very much - so there was no way McKay was going to go.

"Radek, as you so often tell me, _you're_ the puddlejumper expert. You'll be more capable at assessing the situation and diagnosing the problem, if there is one."

Evan smirked. McKay would never admit Zelenka was better at anything unless he was doing it to get out of something he didn't want to do.

"C'mon, doc, it'll be fun," Evan cajoled. Zelenka turned his glare on Evan briefly before training it back on McKay.

"You owe me, Rodney."

McKay smiled beatifically and raised one hand in a wave as Evan escorted Zelenka out of the lab. "Not really," he answered cheerfully, "since I'm your boss and you have to do what I tell you."

Evan stayed at Zelenka's back, preventing him from turning around as he cursed McKay out in Czech.

"He is not my boss," Zelenka grumbled. "I have my own department."

"A department that reports to Dr. McKay."

Zelenka glared. Evan grinned; Dr. Z's bad mood would fade soon enough and Evan wasn't about to pretend to be anything but relieved that it was Zelenka and not McKay going with him.

"Seriously, doc," Evan said, "it'll be fun. Hiking through the woods, camping, sleeping in tents... I'll bring the fixin's for s'mores."

Zelenka wasn't smiling, but Evan was sure it was only out of sheer stubbornness. Evan knew about Zelenka's weird fascination with marshmallows from a previous trip off-world. They hadn't been scheduled to stay overnight, but Evan always packed for just-in-case.

Parrish had told him that smoke kept away the huge blood-thirsty bugs, so while Zelenka worked, Evan built a bonfire and kept it up. Three hours into the diagnostics, he got bored and started roasting marshmallows.

Half a bag later, Dr. Z's face and hands had been covered so thoroughly in marshmallow goo that Evan had to work the console to run the next set of diagnostics. Evan smiled as he packed the food into his backpack. That'd been their first offworld trip together.

By the time Zelenka was packed and waiting in the jumper bay, the dark cloud hanging over him had dissipated. Evan grinned as he popped the hatch on the puddlejumper and strode by, one bag of marshmallows easily visible in the mesh side pocket of his backpack.

"Bribery will not work," Zelenka said, following Evan into the jumper and taking the co-pilot's seat. "You should be trying to get out of these assignments too."

Evan shrugged. Scientist-sitting was pretty decent duty in the scheme of things. He got his share of life-threatening, high-adrenaline adventures when his gate team went out. He figured he deserved a little down time, and counting inventory was mind-meltingly boring next to camping and traipsing around Ancient outposts with Zelenka.

"Nah," Evan said. "I like camping."

"Masochist," Zelenka answered fondly, settling himself into his seat and sitting quietly for the moment.

* * *

"1533," Zelenka said once they were through the gate and speeding down toward the smaller continent on the planet. They'd left in the early evening. Once they got inside the atmosphere, it was clear that it was late morning. It was going to be one hell of a long day.

"Not prime," Evan said, and added, "too easy," for good measure. Evan wasn't a math whiz, but he knew enough to do basic division by twos, threes and fives. He had a good memory too, and when Sheppard told him about Fermat primes and Mersenne primes, he set to work on memorizing them. It wasn't as easy as memorizing pi to twenty digits (done solely to see the look on McKay's face when he was able to work it into conversation), but it was worth it to be able to play prime/not-prime at a higher level.

Zelenka stayed with numbers under 3,000 to give Evan a fighting chance. Evan's method for choosing numbers was scattershot. He didn't bother to keep them under 3,000 because unless a number was not prime, he'd never know anyway. If Zelenka said not prime, he had to prove it; this kept Evan's turns few and far between as he pretended to do the math in his head (and sometimes _did_ do the math in his head).

"6319," Evan said. He knew it wasn't prime, but it would keep Zelenka busy for a little while as he worked it out. Every once in a while Evan prepared a few numbers ahead of time so he could concentrate on other things - like flying the damn puddlejumper.

He circled around, scanning for power signatures and locating the downed jumper after a few minutes of Radek muttering through long division in his head. "Hey doc," he said, smacking Zelenka's arm. "Look."

"Oh," Zelenka answered, playing with the controls to fine tune the scan. He might not've had the gene, but he understood the puddlejumpers inside and out. "There," he said, doing something complicated with the lifesigns detector. "I've got it. It's two point six miles from the edge of the forest."

_That's a nice hike_, Evan thought, worrying about how heavy Zelenka's toolbox was, not to mention his overstuffed backpack and the tent that weighed twenty pounds more than was absolutely necessary.

"Atlantis," he said into the comm. "This is Major Lorne. We've found the jumper and it's a two and a half mile hike in dense forest. If it's all right with you, I think we'll set a twenty-four hour check in."

_"Sounds good, Major,"_ Chuck's voice answered. _"We'll talk to you tomorrow."_

Evan set the jumper down at the edge of the forest, closing her up and putting the cloak on. Every time he left a jumper like that he had the urge to cover it in branches, even though he knew that was completely counter to the point of the cloak. The jumper was so vulnerable out there without any cover.

He glanced back one last time before following Zelenka up the hill. Zelenka grabbed his toolbox, sparing Evan one of the heavy items. Evan threw the tent over a shoulder and followed Zelenka and his miniature lifesigns detector.

They were breathing hard, so the conversation naturally lulled, which was fine with Evan. He liked Dr. Z because he understood the meaning of _comfortable silence_. Evan was fairly certain that McKay didn't even understand the meaning of _silence_.

The undergrowth was out of control in the outer edges of the forest. After a few minutes, Evan had to shoulder Zelenka out of the way and pull out his machete, hacking through plants that should never have gotten to such a ridiculous size.

It took forty minutes of hacking through the dense underbrush before the canopy closed over them completely and the undergrowth died down. Zelenka took the lead again as soon as Evan sheathed his machete.

"Two more miles yet, Major," Zelenka said, and Evan probably would have been happier not knowing how far they had to go.

"Great," he said, adjusting his backpack. "Let's do it."

The next mile was a breeze, relatively. The incline leveled off and the undergrowth was only up to their knees, so it was less than two hours before Dr. Z was bouncing on the balls of his feet next to a puddlejumper-sized mound of foliage.

"This is it!"

There was a clearing up the hill a ways, and Evan walked over and mentally outlined a campsite, making sure there was a flat enough surface for the tent. He set it down and shouldered off his backpack, pulling out the camp shovel so he could dig a fire pit.

Zelenka took his spare machete and started to hack at the thick overgrowth covering what Evan assumed was the back end of the puddlejumper. He shook his head at Zelenka's pathetic technique and got the campsite up and running before finally joining him.

"Doc, you're doing it all wrong."

Zelenka wilted a little, lowering his machete and sighing. "Perhaps you could clear the hatch?"

"I'll help," Evan answered, pulling out his own machete and showing Zelenka how it was done. They hadn't gotten much further when Zelenka came up with a better idea.

"Do you have the remote to our jumper?"

When Evan handed it over, Zelenka set it off. The hatch shuddered open a bit, catching on the tangle of vines around it. That made it much easier to hack through the vines directly in the way of the hatch, and the lower the hatch got, the easier the chopping was. It only took about ten minutes for the hatch to open completely and rest on top of the thicket it had been enclosed in.

Evan had to put a hand on Zelenka's shoulder to prevent him from running right in. "Me first, Doc," Evan said, drawing his sidearm and flashlight and stepping into the dim puddlejumper. It was musty; as old-smelling as the parts of Atlantis they explores before they got the ventilation systems running.

Evan walked up to the cockpit slowly, checking the back compartment fully before opening the bulkhead doors. There were two bodies on the floor, and that was the last thing Evan had expected. Bones, maybe, or just dust, since the last occupants had to have been at least ten thousand years old. But there were bodies - sort of mummified, actually, and adding a sharp new scent to the dusty tomb.

Zelenka was making his way to the cockpit, so Evan called over his shoulder. "You probably don't want to come up here, doc."

"Nonsense," Zelenka replied. "Dead bodies, is that all?"

Evan holstered his gun with a grim smile. Zelenka could still surprise him. "We should bury them."

Zelenka looked taken aback. "Do you know any Ancient burial rites? I, for one, do not."

Evan didn't, but they could hardly leave them there, and what was he supposed to do, dump their bodies in the woods? "What do you suggest?"

"Hm," Zelenka mused. "You have a point."

Unfortunately, he also had only one shovel.

Evan spent a long afternoon digging shallow graves while Zelenka worked on the jumper. Evan was pleasantly surprised when Zelenka dragged him out of the sun after a couple of hours to rest in the cool puddlejumper and force him to drink from his canteen.

When Evan finished digging the graves, Zelenka helped him move the bodies. They were light enough for one person to carry, but there was no way to do it without seeming profane, so they put them on a litter and carried them out. Zelenka put two gravemarkers up, a pair of tall obelisk-shaped bits of carved wood he'd whittled while Evan was digging. There was something in Ancient on them.

"What's it say?"

"Beloved," Radek answered. "They were _someone_'s beloved, anyway."

Evan grinned and tapped a hasty cross over himself. He was about as lapsed Catholic as you could be without having converted, but there was something about the dead that made the old rituals comforting.

* * *

Evan gathered up his soap, a towel, and fresh BDUs and headed down to the stream to wash off the Ancient mummy dust that creeped him out more than he let on. The water was cold, too cold at first, but the stream was hip deep in the middle, so by the time he finished soaping up, he was accustomed enough to the temperature to float on his back a while, enjoying the warm sunshine and cold water on his skin.

As he stood and stretched, a movement caught the corner of his eye, and he turned to look upstream. There was nothing there, but when he turned back, Zelenka was on the shore with his own toiletries, towel, and change of clothes. Evan waded back up to shore, grabbing his soap and his sweaty clothes before heading back into the stream.

"C'mon in, Doc," Evan said and he passed the soap over his sweaty t-shirt. "It's cold but you'll get used to it."

Zelenka didn't hesitate, just stripped with brutal efficiency and climbed right in, no toe-dipping for him. He dove in as soon as he was knee-deep, and Evan was surprised at the simple beauty of the move. Zelenka wasn't clumsy, per se, but he was far from graceful most of the time.

Evan whistled as Zelenka's head broke the surface. He stood and shook his hair out like a shaggy dog.

"I didn't know you were a swimmer," Evan said, sinking back into the cold water until only his head was above the surface.

"Diver, actually," Zelenka answered, and Evan's eyebrows rose. He would never have suspected. "I don't like to sweat when I work out."

Evan smiled. You got used to sweat in the military, or you got the hell out. "You're full of surprises, Dr. Z."

Evan wrung out his half-dirty BDUs as best he could, climbing out of the water and wrapping his towel around his waist before turning to watch Zelenka paddle around. "I'm going to put some dinner together," he said, shading his eyes with his hand. "You can find your way back to camp okay, right?"

Zelenka waved him off and Evan nodded in response before turning to trek back up to the campsite. The fire had died down, so he stoked it back to reasonable levels and pulled out his boy scout camping stash. McKay'd only given them three days to fix the puddlejumper or declare it dead, so he'd packed all his favorites. Tonight, hot dogs and the stuff from M5R-483 so close to sweet corn that if he shut his eyes and put lots of salt and butter on it, he could be back on his uncle's farm.

Zelenka's hair was under control for perhaps the first time Evan had ever known him when he came back from the stream. It was slicked back, flat against his skull. It gave him a mobster-like air, or would have if he weren't in his blue science shirt and khakis.

"We should get you some black BDUs and a tac vest," Evan said thoughtfully. "We really shouldn't be out here with you so..." He waved a hand up and down Zelenka. "Conspicuous."

Zelenka laughed. "That's why I am not on a gate team. I only go when being conspicuous is safe."

Evan shook his head, handing over one of the purple cobs of corn. Nothing in the Pegasus galaxy was safe, and the trust Zelenka had in him, the puddlejumper, or maybe the whole galaxy was a little overwhelming.

They ate quietly, Zelenka going for four or five hot dogs while Evan devoured the rest of the not-corn. He decided to wait on the marshmallows - give their stomachs time to settle before stuffing their faces again.

Digging the graves must have tired him out more than he thought; he woke himself up from dozing with a loud, snorty noise a short while later. Zelenka politely ignored him - though there wasn't really any other option, as his mouth seemed to be glued shut by marshmallow goo.

Evan passed the pack of baby wipes he'd brought for the occasion and Zelenka nodded his thanks. He might have tried to smile, but you couldn't tell through the sticky mess on his face.

"Now that I've got that nap in," Evan said magnanimously, "I'll take first and second watch."

Zelenka stopped cleaning himself to stare over at Evan blankly.

"Watch?" Evan asked. "As in, one of us stays awake to watch the camp?"

"Oh," Zelenka said, and went back to grooming himself. "My watch can be taken by the puddlejumper."

Evan glanced down the hill at her. The console was glowing blue in the darkness. He hadn't even known Zelenka had restored power. "What can it do?"

"I can set the parameters for anything," Zelenka answered, twisting the baby wipe between his fingers to get the marshmallow off. "Currently they are set to sound an alarm if anything bigger than a chihuahua gets within a half-mile radius of the jumper. I can broaden it, if you want."

Evan blinked. "Really?"

Zelenka stood and stretched, yawning exaggeratedly. "Really. You coming?"

Evan took another look at the jumper and followed Zelenka into the tent.

* * *

The next morning, Zelenka was on his third cup of coffee and fourth string of swear words when Evan rolled over and sat up. He'd been listening to Zelenka's chatter from the tent, curiously able to remain in bed even after he would normally have been through his calisthenics and into his run. He didn't like cross-country; running was out until he got back to the flat hallways of Atlantis.

Hiking was good enough, he supposed, as he trudged back down the hill to check in and tell Chuck they'd need another twenty-four hours. It was two hours worth of hiking to say ten words to a tech and give a thumbs up on their progress. Sometimes he wished they could build dialing devices into their earpieces.

Dr. Z was elbow deep in the guts of the jumper when he got back, standing on the toolbox so he could comfortably reach the crystals without stretching. Zelenka and Evan were pretty much the same height; Evan knew damn well he would have lived with all the back pain in the world before admitting he needed a leg up to work on something above his head.

Evan went through to the cockpit, yelling back a request to bring up the displays so he could help out. "Yes, yes," Zelenka said, and Evan could imagine the impatient hand wave that went with it.

He couldn't see a thing through the windshield, so he brought up the sensor array and did a quick scan of their immediate surroundings. Nothing human sized or larger in the entire forest, which spanned several miles. He fine-tuned it a little, looking for chimp-sized - he'd seen some mean monkeys in his day - but still nothing. They'd seen some kind of large, lumbering beast on the plains they flew over to get here, but that was too far away to come up on the lifesigns sensor and too small an energy signature to come up on the planet-wide sensor. Evan didn't worry about it; it didn't look like it was agile enough to climb a heavily forested mountain.

"Major," Zelenka said, putting a hand on Evan's shoulder. He hadn't exactly snuck up on Evan, but it was a close thing.

"What do you need, doc?"

He pulled up a couple of diagnostics and ticked through energy readouts and hull stability and everything he and Zelenka could think of.

"It looks good," Zelenka said. "We should take her up."

Evan nodded at the window. "We'll have to hack her out, first."

It took less than half an hour for Evan to take off his shirt as he hacked through some of the ridiculously thick vines covering the jumper. The sweat rolling down his spine and into the back of his BDUs made him wish he had changed into the pair from yesterday. He had gotten through a quarter of his side when he went to check on Zelenka, and watched him hacking away ineffectually at the vines, miserable, his long-sleeved blue shirt almost navy from the sweat.

"C'mon, doc, get that thing off." Evan had tucked his shirt down the back of his pants; something his dad taught him when they used to work on cars together. _Nothing wrong with working in your bare skin,_ his dad had said, _but always have your shirt handy in case something comes up._ Mostly that was Mom, bringing them iced tea, but once in a while a neighbor'd stop by and they'd pull on their t-shirts to be polite.

"I'm fine," Zelenka said, and Evan sighed at him, raising an eyebrow.

"I promise I won't tell anyone about your love handles," Evan teased, and that got Zelenka's hair up.

"I do not have love handles!" Zelenka spit, hacking at a thick vine. "I simply do not go about unclothed."

"At least let me give you a short-sleeved shirt," Evan said, eyeing the way the sweat made the shirt look even thicker than it probably was. "I've got a nice cool t-shirt, it's got to be better than that."

"Fine!" Zelenka said, throwing the machete down. "If I take my shirt off, will you get back to clearing the demonic undergrowth off the puddlejumper?"

Evan laughed. "Sure thing, doc."

Zelenka pulled his shirt over his head belligerently and threw it on the ground a few feet behind him. "There," he said, picking up the machete and pointing it at Evan. "Now go kill some plants."

Zelenka was right, he didn't have love handles. He was a little round in the belly, but not in a bad way - not even in a beer belly sort of way. It was just a little roundness that you got as you got older - unless you worked out ridiculously hard, like Sheppard. It reminded Evan of home, of a comfortable place where you worked hard and kicked back and lived your life surrounded by people who loved you.

"Actually," Evan said, as he pulled he eyes away from Zelenka's otherwise surprisingly fit torso. Maybe he swam; Evan had heard there was a pool in Atlantis somewhere, but that the scientists had jealously guarded it as their own. "I thought I might teach _you_ how to kill some plants."

He stepped into Zelenka's space, grabbing the wrist holding the machete and moving to stand behind him. Evan lifted Zelenka's arm, swinging down smoothly in a broad arc. It cut through some of the smaller vines, but it was too slow to do any real damage. "Good, now faster, with more muscle."

Zelenka shifted under him and leaned back, and suddenly the length of Evan's torso was sliding along Dr. Z's back, and while it was a surprise, it was a pleasant one. Zelenka swung his arm down heavily, and split a decent-sized vine.

"Thank you, Major," Zelenka said, and turned to grin at him.

"Evan," Lorne said, and then realized being plastered to someone's back was probably a bad position to be in while insisting that someone call you by your first name. "Or Lorne," he added quickly. "I'm not that into being called by my rank."

Zelenka stepped away, but the smile didn't fade, which was enough to make Evan feel comfortable again. "Radek, then, if you don't mind."

"Okay." Evan nodded. "Radek." He stepped back and headed back to his side of the jumper, glad for the breather.

He found himself thinking about Sheppard and McKay while he swung away at the vines, hacking through the mess making less than ideal headway. Sheppard had a strange sort of personal code that meant he wouldn't be involved with any of the people under his command. The same code pretty much said that one-night stands with anybody and everybody not involved with the expedition were fine.

Evan didn't buy into the Lone Ranger crap; he liked people, and gave them a little credit. There were several people he had arrangements with. They all knew what it was going in, and there were no strings. You could come and go as you please, turn down any offer you didn't want to take. Evan avoided fucking the guys at first, until he was certain Sheppard and McKay were together. They may be a galaxy away, but the regs could still track you down if there was someone around with a chip on their shoulder.

Lorne had no idea how Sheppard and McKay got together, but it must have been something extraordinary. Who the hell could even stand being around McKay for more than ten minutes at a time? Well, except Sheppard (who actually seemed to like the guy) and Radek (who could just tell Rodney he was an asshole and then continue to work like nothing happened). It didn't matter, Evan supposed; it was good for the whole military contingent, and him in particular. The night he nearly walked in on them whispering quietly with their heads bent together on the balcony, he'd gone straight to Dr. Parrish. If his CO was okay with getting a little male companionship, Evan wasn't going to refrain, and Parrish'd been asking him since day one, regular as clockwork.

His thoughts finally came back to the person they'd been circling around for the last half hour of monotonous chopping. Zelenka. _Radek_. Evan had thought about him before, but put it aside just as easily. It was a little creepy that their bosses were a couple, and Evan didn't want to give Radek any ideas, didn't want to get in over his head and be stuck with something more than he could handle.

Still, if he could add Radek to his list of regulars... Evan thought he might like that.

When he started paying attention to his machete again, he'd cleared his side of the jumper, and was ready to move around the front. He knew it should probably be called a viewscreen or something science fiction-y like that, but it was always going to be a windshield to Evan. Cutting the vines away and letting the light into the cabin made him work harder; he wanted to get that baby into the air. He might not have had Sheppard's iteration of the gene, but he was pretty sure he could feel her excitement as she was unearthed from her tomb.

Radek turned the corner as Evan hit the halfway point of clearing the windshield. Evan had to admit, he learned quickly. The slick sheen of sweat on his skin didn't look too bad either.

"Pretty good, doc," Evan teased, and hacked through a curtain of vines with a heavy hand.

Radek rolled his eyes and continued to cut through his side until they got close enough together that injury from the other's machete was a distinct possibility. Evan knew he was careful enough to avoid that and he liked to think Radek was too, but it was always better safe than sorry when scientists and sharp objects were involved.

"Why don't you go warm her up and run some diagnostics?" Evan asked. "I'll finish up."

Radek nodded and slipped away while Evan finished the last two feet of the tangled vines. When he showed back up in Evan's sightline, he'd put on a clean shirt and dumped some water over his head, because his hair was slicked back like when he'd gotten out of the stream. It was a good look on him, though Evan had to admit the wild hair was cute in a mad scientist sort of way.

Evan finished up, packed up his machetes and changed, leaving his sweat-drenched clothes outside the tent for laundry in the stream when they got back. He grabbed his canteen, too; he was pretty dehydrated, and if he knew Radek at all - and he did - he hadn't had anything to drink all afternoon.

He chugged a bunch of water on the way to the jumper and handed off the canteen as soon as he got there; Radek gave him a smile of pure gratitude. Evan waved off his attempts to hand the canteen back and sat down in the pilot's seat, doing a thorough systems check before testing her drive pods one at a time.

"I think she's ready," Evan said, and looked back where Radek was fiddling with the crystals in the pull-down hatch. Evan really didn't like it when the engineers went into her guts like that, it made him uncomfortable on her behalf.

"Yes, Major," Radek looked up briefly, meeting Evan's eyes for a split second before checking something on his tablet, "Evan, yes, one more thing and I will be right there."

True to his word, Radek fiddled with one more thing before closing the hatch and coming to sit in the co-pilot's chair. "Buckle up," Evan said, but Radek glared at him and Evan let it go. They didn't normally use the crossbelts in the jumper, what with the inertial dampeners and all, but sometimes he liked to err on the side of caution, and taking up a jumper that hadn't been in the air for ten thousand years was one of those times.

"All right, but I reserve the right to say 'I told you so.'"

Evan took her straight up, and fast. The weird shape of the jumper helped break through the cover, and it was less than thirty seconds before they could see the sun. Evan whooped, pumping a fist in the air. Radek looked a little green, so he evened it out and headed toward the gate, soaring smoothly several thousand feet above the forest.

Something clunked. A bad clunk, a clunk like what happened right before your car died in the middle of the highway with no warning. "Doc?" Evan asked, bringing up internal sensors and energy readouts and anything he could think of to diagnose the problem.

The puddlejumper shuddered as one of the drive pods lost power. Radek was typing away furiously on his tablet, but it didn't seem to be helping; it was all Evan could do to keep the jumper horizontal. "Doc!" he yelled. They were still over the forest - a crash landing here would probably rip the jumper in half, spreading the pieces over several acres.

"Working on it," Radek said, and two seconds later, the drive pod lit back up. It wasn't running at full power, but it was keeping them horizontal while they plummeted back to the planet. Evan switched his focus to managing a crash landing when the drive pods didn't have enough in them to slow them down, much less keep the ship steady.

"Buckle up," Evan said. "You can't do any more and this is going to hurt."

He gave up on holding the ship vertical and rotated the drive pods downward to slow their descent, which might keep them from being ripped to shreds but still was going to hurt like a sonofabitch. The ass end of the jumper rotated until they were looking down at the forest as it rushed up to meet them. The seconds until the crash felt like years as Evan pulled back on the stick as hard as he could, willing the jumper to slow, slow a little more, _God please_!

Something clicked on in his brain, he felt the jumper do something he didn't expressly command, but their velocity slowed immensely; it felt like a chute had been released. Idiotically, he'd ignored his own better judgment and failed to belt himself in, and he slammed forward into the console, catching his head on the corner of the dialing device. He struggled to get right side up again, but as soon as he lifted his head, he saw the canopy of the forest in front of him. "Shit," he yelled, and saw Radek stretching out a hand, well short of actually being able to reach him. They hit the canopy and Evan was bounced around the cockpit before landing with a solid thump right behind Radek's chair. The first thing he noticed was blinding pain in his leg, and he had a brief flash of Zelenka's head bobbing too loosely for him to be conscious before everything went black.

* * *

It was the head shake the finally pulled him out of the blackness. Evan had felt someone rubbing his face, cool hands that felt more like they were kneading his skin than trying to slap some sense into him. "Evan," Radek said, wrapping his hand around Evan's jaw and wiggling his head like he was a bobblehead doll.

"Stop," Evan said weakly. He was probably hallucinating, but it felt like he could actually feel his brain sliding around in his skull. "Think I have a concussion."

He tried to sit up and his brain felt like it expanded about four sizes and was trying to break free of the skull that was confining it. His leg, on the other hand, felt like someone had used it to start a bonfire.

He avoided looking at his leg by running his hands over Radek, checking him for injuries. "I am fine, Major." He took Evan's hands firmly and held them a second before letting them go. "You are not fine. You have a broken femur, a concussion, and more scratches and bruises than you have places to put them. You look like Colonel Sheppard."

Evan grinned. He took a deep breath and looked down at his leg. It hadn't broken the skin, but part of the bone was sticking up under his skin in a really disgusting fashion, and if Evan were the squeamish type, he thought he might just throw up.

"Okay, Radek, time to splint me up and get to the other puddlejumper. I'm going to need some serious work when we get back."

Radek's face squinched up. "Do not be ridiculous. I will walk back to the other puddlejumper and bring back help."

"Radek," Evan said, stopping to breathe heavily for a minute while his leg got white hot and felt like it was branding his skin from the inside. "Radek," Evan started again. "Do you even know which way the jumper is? How far it is?"

The tilt of Radek's head suggested pure annoyance, but when he spoke, it was calmer than Evan expected. "I have the Ancient datapad. It can guide me to the gate."

"What if there are monsters out there, huh?" Evan tried. "Like those big birds from M2C-214 that thought you looked tasty."

Radek clenched his teeth. Evan could see the muscle in his jaw twitch. It distracted him from his pain for half a second. "Then it will be easier for me to defend myself if I am not dragging you along."

"It's my job to protect you," Evan said, "and I can't do that if I'm sitting here on my ass!"

"Major, you are in no condition to protect anyone," Radek answered gently. The pity grated. "It will be most efficient and least dangerous if I leave you and return to the gate."

"What..." Evan said, and stopped as a he heard a familiar whine. "Can you hear that?"

Radek stood still and cocked an ear to the ceiling. "I do not-"

"Shh!" Evan said and listened harder. _Damn it._ "It's a dart."

"What?" Radek asked, and Evan was grateful the pity was gone, though fear wasn't exactly what he'd been looking for.

"Wraith. Get me up."

Evan's fracture sent bolts of excrutiating pain up and down his leg as they worked to get him on his feet and at least a little mobile. Once they stopped jostling him around, the pain dulled to the constant fire of banked coals and he was able to get a grip on it. "Let's go. We have to get to the other jumper."

They left nearly everything behind. Evan tried to engage the cloak, but there was no way to coax enough power from the cells to make the cigarette lighter work, much less the defense systems.

"Forget it," Evan said, grimacing as he hovered over the controls. "We're going to have to hope they're not looking for a jumper and that they won't stumble onto it. Let's go."

Standing made his broken leg sent waves of pain over him, a hot tide alternating between painful and excruciating. The dizziness made him throw up in the pilot's chair, his stomach taking center stage for a moment before the throbbing in his leg returned. He smiled ruefully; if the Wraith did try to do something with the jumper they'd be in for a smelly surprise.

Evan hobbled along as best he could, holding Radek's tablet under the arm not draped over Radek's shoulders. It took that and both of Radek's hands on him to make him steady enough to limp along at even a moderate pace. It was three quarters of a mile to the cloaked jumper at the edge of the forest; if they could make it there, maybe they could ride out the Wraith and wait until they cleared out.

Most of it was downhill, and Evan developed a loping, half-tripping sort of movement that allowed them to move at a pretty good clip for two guys who'd just fallen out of the sky.

They weren't careful, couldn't be too careful if they wanted to make it to the jumper before the Wraith found them, but Evan kept an ear on the rest of the forest when he wasn't blindsided by pain or breathing so hard he couldn't hear anything else. They stopped twice when he thought he heard something, but a quick sweep of the surroundings didn't reveal anything, so they lumbered on.

The third time Evan heard something, he was absolutely certain there was someone or something there. He squeezed Radek's arm, doing his best to give warning, but he had no idea if Radek knew what it meant.

He took two more steps, leaning heavily on Radek as he popped the strap on his sidearm. He pulled it out as he turned around clumsily, dropping Radek's tablet. He managed to keep his feet, which was about as much as he could hope for.

Fifty feet away was a woman. She was small but muscular - her body, at least, reminded him of Teyla. She was much darker-skinned, though, a dark brown streak of woman who almost blended in with the trees. She was sidling nearer to one even as he stood there with a gun on her.

"Stop," Evan said. "We're not going to hurt you."

She grinned at that - a beautiful, white-toothed grin that would have put Ronon's to shame - and said, "How do you know _I_ am not going to hurt _you_?"

Evan blinked. Radek picked up his tablet and dusted it off casually. "If you were going to hurt us," Radek said, "you would have done so before now. You've been following us for some time."

She shrugged and took another small step to the side, hiding herself half behind the trunk of a very large, very old tree. Of course she wouldn't hurt them - not until they led her straight to the jumper. "Listen," Evan said, lowering his gun. "There are Wraith out here, we could-"

She chuckled, a low, grim sound. "I am well aware of the Wraith."

_How the hell did she get here?_ Evan thought. "Oh shit," he moaned.

"She is a Runner," Radek whispered, but not quietly enough that she didn't hear.

"Yes."

"Come with us," Evan said earnestly. His leg was flaring up, concentric circles of pain blooming and fading as he kept accidentally putting pressure on it. "We can get that thing out of your back."

She considered them briefly. "All right," she agreed reasonably, and came out from behind the tree.

Evan's mouth dropped open when he saw his P-90 and backpack strapped to her back. "Hey! That's my stuff!"

"She who finds a gem unattended reaps the spoils of the inattentive," she answered, and walked right up to him, took his gun out of his hand, and pulled his arm across her shoulders. "Hop, little man."

"Did you really just tell me finders keepers?" Evan asked, though he shifted his weight and leaned on her. "And I don't know who you're calling little - you're shorter than I am, and you look like a strong wind could knock you over."

She smiled, not rising to the bait, and Evan stopped caring when he realized he was basically being carried, and Radek wasn't taking his share of the weight. He was concentrating on the handheld scanner, driving them as directly as he could to the jumper. Evan gave up and hopped along, more of a pushing off of his good leg and suspending himself on the woman who was no more than an inch shorter than him, but easily a hundred pounds lighter. He was forcibly reminded of Teyla again.

Evan kept his ears open, even though he figured the Runner was probably going to hear anything well before he would. He started to worry as it took ten, fifteen, twenty minutes and they _still_ weren't at the jumper. Even if they _hadn't_ been crashing through the forest, she had a transmitter in her back. They should have been found by the Wraith by now.

"How much longer?" Evan asked.

"Less than a quarter mile," Radek answered, and Evan took a deep breath. Adrenaline was keeping the pain tolerable for now, but he knew he was going to pay for it later.

It was five minutes at most as they skidded down the last foothill to the tree line. Evan had the remote out of his tac vest and opened the hatch as soon as they were within range. The Runner whistled when she caught sight of the interior of the puddlejumper. "Didn't think you'd have two of these."

The walked up the ramp sideways, like a three-headed crab, and Evan kept them moving all the way to the cockpit. They set him down in the pilot's seat as carefully as they could. "Fuck," Evan said, as the jolt from sitting set off a minor pain bomb, the explosion spreading across him like wildfire.

Radek brought the hatch up as Evan started up the jumper. "What are you doing?" Radek asked. "You are in no condition to fly."

"Is her transmitter shielded in here?" Evan asked.

"I do not..." Radek said, plopping down into the co-pilot's seat and booting his tablet. Evan ran sensor sweeps, trying everything he could think of to see if her transmitter could be picked up outside the jumper.

"Faster, Radek," Evan prompted. If she was shielded, then he'd have to move the jumper; the Wraith would investigate her last known whereabouts. If she wasn't, then he had to come up with a plan quick, because if they flew anywhere, they'd give up their only advantage.

"No," he answered finally. "I think they can still read her." Evan brought up the HUD and tried a lifesigns sweep as far out as he could. There were four Wraith on the ground, not moving.

"Why aren't they moving?"

"They've found your other ship," the Runner answered, and it finally hit Evan that he needed something else to call her.

"I'm Evan Lorne," he said, nodding at her. "This is Radek Zelenka." He didn't want to include their honorifics just yet.

"Kiidra ul Fahrnot," she answered. "Can you really get this thing out of me?" She didn't look convinced, but he supposed it wasn't like Runners got a good dose of gossip while they were running around on other planets.

"We've done it before," Evan answered. "Ronon Dex, of Sateda."

She nodded solemnly.

"All right, I'm going to pick the jumper up and move it along the treeline," Evan said. "Make it look like you're walking toward the stream."

"Yes, yes," Radek said, and Evan shook his head at the typical terse McKay-like answer. The more dire the situation, the more similar they were. "There is a cruiser in orbit, and a single dart on the ground, half a mile from here."

Evan squinted at Kiidra. "Where is your ship?"

She laughed, a throatier version of her earlier chuckle. "I was brought here by the Wraith."

"What?" Evan asked. "I thought they set you loose on planets with ground gates. How are you supposed to get offworld?"

Her smile turned sardonic, a wry expression that would have given Colonel Sheppard a run for his money. "They tend to lose me for years at a time when they do that. They don't risk it any more."

Radek shuddered. Evan wanted to as well; had Ronon's freedom made them crack down on the rest of their Runners? He'd have to bring it up to Sheppard. They'd meant to rescue all of them back when they figured out the transmitter frequencies to save Ronon. They got preoccupied with the Replicators and Michael, among other things. It was about time they got back to that.

Evan skimmed the tree line for a while. "I have a full complement of drones," Evan said quietly. Eighteen drones. If placed properly, twelve could take out a cruiser. That left six for the dart. "Pretty sure I can kill the cruiser if I can sneak up on it."

That meant leaving Kiidra on the ground; seeing her transmitter in the air would give them away. He checked on the Wraith; they were still at the crash site, apparently more interested in whatever they'd left behind than their hunting party.

"You should be safe," Evan said. "Radek, you should stay with her on the ground."

"Major," Radek protested, but Evan shook his head sternly.

"No, doc. She has no reason to believe we'll come back for her, and besides, this could get ugly."

Radek gave him a sour look, but nodded his consent.

"You have to promise to watch his back," Evan said. "It's my job to protect him."

"I understand," Kiidra said, grinning almost evilly. The flash of teeth was alarming.

"I'll come back for you when everything's clear." He waited for Radek to move out of the cabin before he leaned forward and whispered, "If anything happens to me, just stay alive for half a day or so. My people will come."

"I understand," Kiidra repeated. She looked down at his leg. He could ignore it for the moment, adrenaline dulling the pain to a throbbing ache. "Will you be able to do this with your injury?"

_Thank God for mind-controlled spaceships_, Evan thought. "Yeah," he answered. "Yeah, I can do it."

He showed Kiidra how to work the P-90 while they waited for Radek to get together some supplies and his tablet, though he had a sneaking suspicion she was humoring him. "Little quicker, there, doc."

"I am only taking the essentials," Radek answered, and Lord only knew what that might mean to a scientist. Kiidra looked remarkably calm, but he supposed this was the best chance she'd had of escaping the Wraith in a long time. She certainly wasn't losing anything by keeping their company.

He hit the hatch and Kiidra grabbed Radek's sleeve as he grabbed the big white first aid kit out of the back. "Come, Radek," she said, the natural lilt in her voice slipping over the 'd' like it almost wasn't there, "we will be safe."

She guided him down the ramp with a firm hand. "Good luck, Evan," Kiidra said, and Evan was almost disappointed at how normal his name sounded in her mouth. At least until Radek told him to break a leg, which was so funny Evan popped the hatch while they were still walking down it.

Once he had the puddlejumper to himself he took two deep breaths and started his ascent. He would've liked to have Radek with him, but he'd be safer on the ground. If Evan failed, Kiidra could keep him alive until Atlantis sent reinforcements. Maybe. If he succeeded, Kiidra was on their side, and Evan spared a thought to having a Pegasus native on his team for a change. SGA-1 always got the best people, but the Colonel's team was set now, and they wouldn't take on a fifth.

Evan corrected his flight path to take him right in under the cruiser. Most of what he was aiming for could be reached from here. Decloaking to fire would take five seconds or so, but hopefully hiding under the belly of the ship would keep him from being noticed until he could fire the drones.

Once he was in position, he took two deep breaths and decloaked. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel the blood slamming in his throat, and he counted down from five, watching the screen to see if he'd been discovered as each second ticked by, interminably slowly. As soon as the drones came live, he fired, concentrating on six at a time, sending them to the soft spots McKay and Sheppard had taught him in the first week he'd been in Pegasus. As soon as they landed, he launched another six and drove the jumper downward, hoping to get out of the blast radius and take care of the dart before it got mobile.

He sent a drone toward the dart and another toward the remains of the puddlejumper. The Wraith lifesigns on land were extinguished, but the dart had managed to lift off and roll out of the way of the drone. Shit. The jumper wasn't made for dogfighting, but he couldn't cloak because that would only draw attention back to Kiidra's transmitter, and the last thing he wanted was to have to shoot down the dart and have a replay of that thing with Cadman and McKay.

He pulled up, heading for the gate, hoping to trick the dart into thinking he was making a run for it. He saw the cruiser blowing up in slow motion, secondary explosions rocking through the ship exactly as McKay had told him it would happen. He skimmed just outside explosion range as he tried to line up with the gate.

The dart came up on him, shooting whatever the hell it had for weapons, lasers or energy pulse weapons or whatever, and Evan let one drone loose, missing pretty spectacularly. He shut the drone down and it plummeted toward the planet. They could still collect it and use it later if it wasn't too damaged from the fall.

He slowed down slightly, pretending he was getting ready to dial, and the dart caught up to him in one quick surge. Evan thought _all stop!_ and watched the dart fly right by. It was the oldest trick in the book, but he figured the Wraith hadn't had time to watch _Top Gun_ in their quest to eat their way through the Pegasus galaxy. With the dart in his sights, Evan let two more drones loose, but the pilot was better than he would have guessed. They missed, and Evan had to think them off quickly before they hit the stargate.

He closed up on the dart, now too damn close to the gate. Evan shot one more drone, holding this one in mind carefully, guiding it to the dart. The dart dipped crazily, a weird nose-down maneuver that made it look like a mosquito dive-bombing the planet. The drone was moving too fast and hit the gate; Evan didn't have time to worry about it. He went nose-down and followed the dart, and part of his mind went straight to Harry Potter. If this was the Wronski feint, he was fucked - the darts were way more maneuverable than the jumpers.

He fired both drones at the back of the dart, concentrating everything he had on the heat from the dart's engines. He looked up a second before they hit, and the flaming debris that skidded off the shield was worth an exhausted cheer. He pulled up, slowed down, and turned on the com. "All clear."

_"Are you okay?"_ Radek asked, and Evan was all set to say, "sure thing, doc," when he lost consciousness.

* * *

_"Major!"_

Someone was screaming in his ear. Evan swatted at the annoyance, hitting his earbud out of his ear. That woke him up, and he sat up straight, adrenaline snapping him fully awake.

He was still moving, heading toward the ground too damn quickly. He couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds, but it looked like it was going to be his second crash of the day. He pulled up as much as he could, and the jumper landed ass-first, skidding along the ground for a good half-mile before coming to a stop.

Evan lurched forward against his cross-belts, and let his head fall. It felt like it was the size of a pumpkin. He let it hang, loosening the muscles of his neck, and decided maybe it was safe to fall asleep again.

* * *

When Evan regained consciousness again, he was laid out in the back of the jumper. His head was at the back hatch, so there was sun on his face, and he laid still and assessed his injuries as best he could based on his aches and pains. Closing his eyes against the surge of nausea that had accompanied their opening, first on the list was _concussion_. He was pretty sure he hadn't been out long enough for his broken leg to heal, so he added that to the list. He clenched and released all his muscle groups and determined that he must not have had _too_ bad of a landing if he hadn't broken anything else.

"Doc," he croaked. His throat was parched. He swallowed and tried again. "Radek?"

There was some shuffling, and he got a sudden whiff of campfire. "Evan," a woman's voice said. Kiidra. Right. The Runner.

"Yeah," Evan answered, opening one eye where she blocked out the sun. "'m here."

She laughed - sultry, this time, and Evan tried to smile. He thought he might have managed it, a little. "Where's Radek?"

"Sleeping," she answered. "He's been trying to fix the ship. I think."

_Shit_. Evan groaned. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to slip into unconsciousness again. His leg was winding itself up as he woke, lava-like heat burning its way outward from the broken thigh bone to encompass everything south of his hips. "Hurts," he said, closing his eyes again.

"Radek said to give you this if you woke up," she said, and before Evan could say _no_ she had stuck his thigh with something sharp, and he could feel the liquid flood the space under his skin, making it tight and hot. Waste of morphine - it should be intravenous for it to do him the most good - but he welcomed the distraction, and eventually it'd make its way into his system.

"I'll have to set the bone," she said, and Evan tried to laugh. He really could have used some proper morphine for this. "Radek said it would take many days for your friends to reach you." Evan cursed. He would have knocked his head against the floor of the jumper if it hadn't been for his concussion. He had fucked up the gate _and_ the jumper. _Damn it._

"Okay," Evan said. He could feel the cool dulling of sensation spreading from where she had stuck him with the morphine. Maybe if the bone-setting was painful enough, he'd pass out again. She got up, and before he could ask where she was going, his leg was _right here_, she called for Radek in a voice that carried surprisingly well.

"Coming," Radek said, and Evan was overcome with a strange sort of relief at hearing Radek's voice. He knew Radek was all right, he just didn't _know_ it, not in his bones, until he heard Radek's voice.

"Radek," Evan said, as his crazy hair came into Evan's view. "Sorry I fucked up the gate." His words slurred a little. That seemed too fast. Maybe it was some other drug. He didn't think the field kits had anything but morphine.

"Do not worry, Major," Radek said, and took one of Evan's hands in his.

"Evan."

"Do not worry, _Evan_," Radek repeated, and then looped a piece of leather around Evan's wrist and gave the end of it to Kiidra.

"Wait," Evan said, but Radek had caught his other hand, and he couldn't move his legs without stabbing pains to his entire left side. Kiidra staked the rope into the ground, pulling Evan's arm out from his body and slightly above his shoulder. Radek slipped another loop of leather around his other wrist and passed it to her, and she did the same thing on the other side.

"Sorry, Evan," Radek said, and knelt at Evan's head. Kiidra placed another leather thong around his right ankle and tied it so tightly to the co-pilot's chair that he couldn't move it. Not that he wanted to; that would jolt his broken leg and he had a feeling Kiidra'd be doing enough of that for both of them.

"You never told me you were kinky, Radek," Evan said, curling the leather in his hands and testing Kiidra's stakes. They were solid, more than strong enough to keep him from doing something stupid with his hands.

Radek blushed a little but didn't answer, and Evan had a brief moment of curiosity before Kiidra said, "On three."

Radek nodded and placed his hands on Evan's shoulders, putting a hell of a lot of pressure on him. Evan could feel the constriction on his lungs as he breathed as deeply as he could, still a little too fast.

"One."

Kiidra yanked on his leg and it took a second for the surprise to give way to the pain. He screamed, wondering when he was going to black out. This was worse than the jumper crash, way worse, and he kept screaming until Kiidra leaned forward and belted him.

* * *

Radek was sitting next to him when he woke up. He was still tied up, his head was cushioned, and he could feel one hell of a bruise coming up on his cheekbone. Kiidra packed one hell of a wallop.

Radek looked pissed. Worried, a little, but mostly pissed. Evan smiled and let his head fall to he side. "'m fine." He was still slurring, so the souped up maybe-morphine was still working, which probably explained why his leg only felt like someone had tried to saw it off, and not like someone had set off a nuclear bomb in it.

"You are not fine," Radek answered. "You have a concussion and she _hit you on the head_."

"Was screaming," Evan said. He remembered the screaming quite clearly. The rest, not so much.

"No excuse," Radek countered.

Evan decided to distract him. "How long before the cavalry comes?"

Radek turned his pissy look on Evan. "Yes, thank you for breaking the gate, Major. It will take them six more days, assuming they set out the moment we missed our check-in."

Six _more_ days. "How long have I been out?"

"Eighteen hours," Radek answered, and shook the canteen in front of Evan's face. "Water?"

Evan test-swallowed and nodded, reaching for the canteen.

Except his hands were still tied. "Sorry, Major," Radek said, clucking at himself before Evan could protest at the rank. "Evan. Kiidra thought it would be best to keep your hands restricted until you woke up."

Evan nodded, opening his mouth wide enough to make it easy for Radek to pour the water in. He still managed to miss and some water trickled down Evan's neck. Radek wiped it off with a surprisingly gentle hand.

"So I'm awake," Evan said, testing the leather straps. The pain in his leg was gearing up as he came more fully awake, the ripples turning into waves and gathering speed as the got ready to crash over him.

"We are short on morphine."

Evan would have loved to be the guy who could grit his teeth and take it, but he wasn't. He hated pain, and whatever his threshhold was, this was beyond it. This was light years beyond it. "How much is left?"

"One subcutaneous and two intravenous injections. But I do not know how to use those, so they do not count."

Evan closed his eyes. "Doc, I'm going to need those, so you're going to have to suck it up and figure it out."

"Kiidra thought perhaps we could just keep you unconscious."

Evan opened his eyes to look at Radek again. He didn't have _any_ field medical training? Didn't everyone have to have that before coming to Atlantis? "I have a concussion," Evan said slowly, articulating as clearly as he could. "I shouldn't be sleeping so much. You should wake me up every hour." Radek's face fell, so Evan tried to smile. "It's no big deal."

"It is," Radek said miserably. "I do not know how to care for your injuries, and it will be days before anyone comes for us."

"'S'okay," Evan said, tipping his chin up to indicate he wanted more water. "I'll tell you what to do." Radek tilted the canteen over his mouth and didn't miss. Evan swallowed hard and tried to look out of the jumper at the fire he could hear crackling, but couldn't see much except the edge of the jumper and the sky. "Where's Kiidra?"

"Looking for the rest of our belongings. She has made two trips to the campsite already."

Evan nodded. "When she gets back, we're going to have to splint my leg." The thought of it made him wish for another punch to the head. "We're going to need a couple of branches or something sturdy to make the frame, and then whatever we've got to tie the whole rig together."

"Okay," Radek said, and held the canteen up in question.

"No," Evan said. It was too hard to swallow without being able to sit up. "I'll be fine. Go get whatever you need."

Radek stayed around camp, evidently finding something metal to use for the frame, because the clanking kept waking Evan up out of his catnaps.

Kiidra returned some time later, and they splinted Evan's leg, her hands firm on him to keep him from moving, and Radek piecing together the ridiculously high-tech splint built out of bits of scrap metal. Evan didn't ask where he got it from.

The tight press of the splint supported his leg and made it feel a little better. That lasted for a couple of hours until the morphine started to wear off.

"Damn," Evan moaned. "Damn, this hurts, god damn it." Radek wiped him down with a damp cloth. "I need another shot, doc."

"I think we should save the morphine. I have an idea that might work better."

Evan didn't think anything was going to work if they waited much longer. The pain in his leg was already as bad as it had been right after the first crash and showed no signs of backing off. "The intravenous morphine," Evan said. "It'll work better and faster. You don't even have to use the whole syringe - only half."

Radek's face screwed up tightly. "Let me tell you my idea first."

If Radek's idea didn't include letting Kiidra knock him out again or suddenly being able to fly to the gate and dial home, Evan was pretty sure he was going to punch him. As soon as his arms were free.

"I can bring you to the edge of orgasm and keep you there for hours," Radek said, and that... that was not at all what Evan was expecting.

"Excuse me?!"

"It will work as a distraction from the pain," Radek said, and Evan supposed it was true, but he'd never had sex for even close to an hour - how the hell did you not come for _hours_?

"I don't know," Evan said, and Radek set a hand on Evan's ribs, a comfortable weight on his chest.

"I will take care of you," Radek said, and something in Evan broke. That was _his_ job, to take care of the scientist. He could feel tears prickling at the backs of his eyes and he looked up and took a deep breath to get them under control. He nodded, once, and closed his eyes.

"Good!" Radek said, sounding surprised, and then again, less surprised and more pleased. "Good. Let me get the first aid kit."

Radek stood up to pull open one of the hatches where they kept their extra supplies and Evan spared a thought for Kiidra, who had stayed away since splinting his leg. "What about the Runner?"

Radek turned to look at him. "I asked her to help, but she said she will not bed with any man, and I did not want to insist." Evan snorted. Like Radek could have forced Kiidra to do anything she didn't want to do.

"I meant, is she going to..." _Watch_, his mind supplied, but his mouth clamped down on it. "...stay away?"

Radek knelt with the first aid kit and flipped it open. "She is scavenging our campsite, insisting she be able to keep whatever she finds." Radek laughed. "Most of the useful technology was destroyed when you bombed the jumper. But she promised to share the rest of the marshmallows."

Evan laughed, and then moaned as it wiggled his leg enough to send a bolt of pain up it. Radek looked down at him sympathetically. "Are you certain about this?" he asked. If Evan had been feeling all right, he would have kissed the frown right off Radek's face. Instead he winked.

"You know, crashing a jumper - _two_ jumpers - is a long way to go to have sex with me."

Radek raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I could say the same thing, Evan." He rummaged through the kit intently, carefully moving things and setting them aside.

"Hours?" Evan asked, to avoid the heavy silence that was settling in. "Really, hours?"

"Yes," Radek answered simply, and began removing things from the kit. Lube, latex gloves, several small squares of blue material, of the type that was omnipresent in infirmaries and hospitals everywhere. _Wait a minute..._

"Wait a minute," Evan said looking at the supplies and wishing he had asked for his hands to be untied, at least. "What are you going to do?"

Radek frowned at him, but not unkindly. "You have never been penetrated?"

Evan swallowed. He hadn't, but it hadn't seemed like a big deal before. The men he liked seemed to like to bottom, so it had never come up. He couldn't say it out loud, so he shook his head.

"Interesting," Radek said. "Do you have a problem with it?"

_Problem?_ Evan blinked. How would he know if he had a problem if he'd never experienced it before?

"Do you have a moral objection?" Radek clarified, and Evan took a deep breath. He was scared, a little. Uncertain, definitely. But he trusted Radek, and Radek seemed to know what he was doing. He hoped to hell this wasn't going to hurt.

"No."

"Okay," Radek said, and untied his good leg. Evan glanced hopefully at his hands, but Radek shook his head and smiled. He took the oddly-shaped scissors in the medical kit and cut the BDUs up the side of Evan's good leg, and then the boxers too. He peeled them back and the coolness of the air on Evan's skin made it prickle, even though it was plenty warm enough to wander around naked, had they been so inclined.

Radek didn't cut Evan's t-shirt, thankfully. BDUs were easy enough to come by, but these t-shirts were microfiber, special ordered and tough to get on top of expensive. Radek pushed it up a few inches, exposing Evan's belly, and Evan was about to tell him to pull it up as high as he could, because he was a shooter and had been known to get come in his hair, except Radek leaned right over, one hand lightly settled on Evan's abdomen, and licked his cock from balls to tip. Evan groaned, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Jesus, Radek," he said, when he could open his eyes without spraining them. "That's not going to keep me from coming for very long."

"Just getting you started," Radek said, patting his belly and crawling over his good leg. The pain in his broken leg already felt distant, like the break was in the body next door. "Don't expect much more of that."

Evan tried not to get his hopes up, but it was hard. His erection started to flag when Radek pulled on the latex glove and coated his fingers with KY, so he got another lick for his trouble. Radek's first touch to his asshole made Evan tense involuntarily, which made his broken leg front and center of his attention again. The short scream that got out of him before he bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood got Radek's attention. He looked up, calculating whatever he saw in Evan's face as if it were some kind of complex equation, and then he took Evan's cock in his mouth, pushing a finger into Evan at the same time.

That confused the hell out of Evan's body, which sent him _Oh, fuck!_ and _What the fuck?_ signals at the same time. He consciously relaxed his ass and the _Oh, fuck!_ reaction got a lot louder. Radek must have felt something because before Evan could really appreciate the wet heat of Radek's mouth, it was gone, and Evan was left with a sinking feeling.

Just having Radek's finger in him wasn't doing anything at all, and if that was the way Radek planned to keep him from having an orgasm, then this was going to be a lot less interesting than he thought.

"Radek," Evan said, wracking his brain for a polite way to put it. "It doesn't -"

Radek twisted his hand and pulled his finger back out. That was weird enough to give Evan pause. "Give it time, Evan."

Evan took a deep breath and exhaled noisily. "If you say so, doc." He closed his eyes and pictured Radek licking his cock, and it was almost good enough.

Radek slid his finger back into Evan, and Evan relaxed again. Radek got further in this time. It was still weird, a full feeling that wasn't sexy but wasn't painful either. The slide, though, that was something. Radek kept moving, in and out as relentless as the damn ocean, and Evan breathed with it, thinking maybe it would at least be enough of a distraction to keep the pain at bay - it was working so far.

There was a different kind of heat working its way down from his belly, a building sensation like the hours of anticipation before meeting one of his partners, a slow but steady swell of excitement. Maybe there was something more to this after all.

He could feel his temperature rise, the rush of blood to his torso, overheating like he always did during sex. There was something new, too, something bright and pleasant as Radek rocked into and out of him slowly. His cock was swelling, something he hadn't expected after it had pretty much sagged back to uninterested as soon as Radek took his mouth off Evan.

The strange confluence of sensations finally settled into something recognizable - the build toward orgasm. Torturously slow-building, but it was there. He felt the involuntary twitch of his hips, trying to get his cock somewhere it could do some good, but that twisted his bad leg, and the jolt of pain softened his cock again. Radek patiently continued, a lazy but persistent slide that brought Evan back around.

The whole process was maddening. Evan would get worked up enough to want to do something, and as soon as he did, the pain knocked him down a peg. Then Radek ratcheted him back up only to have Evan squirm or shift and jiggle his leg again.

It wasn't just the pain, either, but the slow press of Radek's implacable fingers - two or three now, Evan couldn't tell - constant and unyielding, that drew Evan's attention inward. The low buzz made him alternately lose all control in his arms and yank on the leather straps, wishing Kiidra hadn't been quite so skilled at pinning him in place.

If it was just the warm sort of pleasure of a backrub or a hot shower after a long day, Evan would have been able to relax into it, maybe fall asleep, even. But there was an edge of arousal, not sharp enough for Evan to come, or even mount the last desperate step to an orgasm, and that made it maddening.

"Please," Evan whispered, his hips tilted up into Radek's strokes, moving more than his leg should allow, but the endorphins had long since made the pain take a backseat. He wondered if he'd regret it when this was all over, and then decided he didn't care. "Radek, please," Evan said again, opening his eyes long enough to squint at Radek, to try and figure out how much of a bastard he was going to be. Evan had been suspended in this place for what felt like hours. He needed release.

Radek didn't make him say what he wanted; either he already knew or he didn't care. He just kept his immutable rhythm of shattering Evan into tiny pieces that would never be put together quite the same again. "You will come like this, or not at all," Radek said, and Evan's cock twitched, whether at the sound of Radek's voice, full of grit and glass, or the idea that Evan had no control over the proceedings whatsoever, he wasn't sure.

"Tell me again," Evan said, feeling the silvery spiral of tension that was the beginning of a really great orgasm.

"Like this," Radek said, timing his words with the thrust and twist of his fingers, "or not at all."

Evan closed his eyes and tipped his chin up. _Keep talking_, he willed Radek to understand. He couldn't ask for it, but he needed that voice to hang on to.

"Evan," Radek said, and his voice was steady but low, as low as Evan had ever heard it. "Come for me, Major."

Evan had never had a problem obeying an order in his life, but this one was too soon, the frequency was nowhere near high enough for him to come yet. He whined, a breathy sound he kept behind his teeth as much as he could.

"Yes, that's it," Radek's voice coaxed him. "I want to see you."

Evan's hips tipped up even further, trying to meet Radek's fingers, trying to bear down until he felt his balls connect with the heel of Radek's hand.

"A little more, Evan, for me. That's it." Radek's voice went breathy, and the sound was almost enough. "Come for me, Evan."

The last second before Evan came seemed to last for a lifetime; his back bowed almost painfully, his hips lifted off the floor of the jumper, and all the tension left his shoulders so his arms were liquid and loose in their leather straps.

Evan came, making a mess of his t-shirt, his hair, and a fair portion of the jumper above his head. His whole body settled like water, and he allowed himself to get sucked under and straight into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next six days were a indecipherable mess of sex, pain, and sleep. Evan felt bad for not being able to reciprocate, even after they finally untied him, but Radek slapped his hands away every time, and after a while it was easier to just lay back and enjoy it.

They never used the rest of the morphine, and when the cavalry finally rolled in, they had enough time to get Evan upright (he'd been sitting up and hobbling around the last three days) and into clothes. He'd stopped being shy around Kiidra when she stripped and gave herself a sponge bath with both of them watching, their mouths hanging open like gawking teenagers. Radek still went to the river to bathe, but Evan cleaned himself as best he could and let Kiidra do the rest.

When he finally heard Sheppard's voice over the com, he'd never been so relieved in his life.

"All present and accounted for, sir."

_"Good to hear your voice, Major."_

Evan grinned, at least until Radek stuck him with the last subcutaneous morphine shot before untying the splint. He sucked in a fast breath, too loud to keep it off the com.

_"You all right there?"_ Sheppard asked.

"Just a broken leg." Now he heard someone else gasp - McKay, he guessed, as McKay was pretty squeamish, even after all the injuries he'd sustained over the years they'd been here. "We're trussing it up right now."

_"Leave it, please,"_ Dr. Beckett said, and Evan hummed, pleased they'd brought him along. _"I'd like to see it and splint it myself, if you don't mind."_

"Good to hear your voice, doc," Evan said. "Tell me you've got enough drugs to knock an elephant out, because eight more days of this might kill me."

_"I've got you covered, Major."_

Kiidra zipped Evan's fly as Radek pulled a clean t-shirt over Evan's head, and Evan thought he would be sorely disappointed if he never got these two on his gate team.

_"What the hell is transmitting down there?"_ McKay asked sharply.

"Shit," Evan said, and pulled his com off. "Radek, you didn't disable her transmitter?"

"Do not worry," Radek said, whether to Evan or McKay, he wasn't sure. "It is local transmission only - not subspace. A Wraith ship would have to fly into atmosphere to be aware of it."

Evan relaxed and worked his earpiece back into his ear. "Sorry, McKay. We've got some company. You'll meet her when you get your asses down here."

_"All right, children,"_ Sheppard said, and Lorne could hear relief in his voice clear as day. _"We'll see you in twelve minutes. Sheppard out."_

Kiidra helped Evan limp over to the remains of the campfire, and Radek gave Evan a marshmallow on a stick. Evan took it, dipping it into the fire until it started to burn, and then pulling it up to his face so he could watch the inferno. Radek looked like Evan had slapped his grandmother.

"You're ruining it!" Radek exclaimed, his own two marshmallows turning toasty brown as Radek carefully turned them over the coals, well away from any flames.

"Mmm," Evan said, and popped the whole thing into his mouth. He wished they had chocolate left, but he supposed marshmallows were a decent consolation prize. He was glad he packed three bags of them.

Radek took his off the fire and let Kiidra take one off the stick before pulling his off with his fingers, somehow getting himself covered in marshmallow guts, even with the nice toasty coating. Kiidra smiled, her own hands untouched by stickiness.

Evan took a look around their makeshift campsite and it was mostly ready to go; they must have packed as he slept because he sure as hell hadn't seen them do it.

The jumper landed smoothly just as Kiidra was smothering Radek with a baby wipe to clean his face. Evan caught a glimpse of Sheppard raising an eyebrow. The rest of his team was in the forecabin, which meant Carson was in the back. Evan heard the good doctor as soon as the hatch hissed open.

"All right, Lorne, what did you do to yourself?"

Evan grinned. "It was the jumper, Dr. Beckett. I don't think she liked me very much."

Carson took his time examing and splinting Evan's leg. Radek introduced them all to Kiidra, and McKay to made an utter fool of himself as she took his forearm in their traditional greeting, squawking and pulling back as she squeezed his muscle firmly. She laughed at him, smiled at Sheppard - the same charmng but meaningless smile that Sheppard used on the ladies, which was a sight to see - and knelt before Teyla. That got a double-take from everyone except Ronon, who seemed to look at Teyla a little funny.

"No, no," Teyla said, pulling Kiidra up. "We do not observe the formalities."

Kiidra looked uncertain, but rose. She looked over Ronon once and said, "Satedan."

Ronon chuckled. "Ronon Dex."

They gripped each other's forearms, staring each other down, and McKay rubbed his arm unconsciously. "Enough of the pissing contest," McKay said, and they broke their lock to look at him. It was a surprisingly subtle move for McKay; Evan wondered if he'd done it on purpose.

"McKay," Sheppard said, taking his good arm and pulling him to Evan's crashed jumper. "Let's see if we can salvage something here, shall we?"

Evan watched them wander off, knowing if the jumper could have been fixed, Radek would have done it. Radek followed the pair at a distance, interrupting Rodney in a familiar cadence Evan'd heard since the first time he'd seen them work together.

Ronon, Teyla, and Kiidra stood around Evan, watching Beckett work, and helping with the splint when he deemed it time. Beckett secured it even tighter than Kiidra, and the pressure helped the pain, which was already phoning it in from Brazil because of the morphine.

When he finished with Evan, Beckett fussed over Kiidra, doing a scan of her back. "It's deeper in the spine than Ronon's," he said, and that prompted a very loud, apparently amusing discussion as Evan couldn't control the urge to giggle.

The end result was Kiidra's invitation to Atlantis for medical care (at the insistence of Carson, who was more persuasive than Evan had given him credit for) and a quick but thorough packing up the jumper, which included packing up Evan. Kiidra and Ronon picked him up by his armpits and feet, carrying him like a piece of luggage and laying him on the floor of Sheppard's jumper. "This feels familiar," he said, and giggled, because after the third or fourth day, the only reason he was ever in this position was for Radek to bliss him out.

"Shh, Major," Radek said.

Evan pouted. He didn't think he'd pouted since he was six, but he stuck his lip out as far as he could manage. "Evan," Radek corrected.

Sheppard's head whiplashed around, and Evan had a distant thought that he should care, but McKay took one look at them, stood up and crossed the cabin, and hit the button for the bulkhead doors, locking everyone but SGA-1 in the back.

"Evan," Radek said quietly. "Shhh."

"It's okay," Evan said. Radek frowned.

"It is your military's policy."

Evan laughed. "Sheppard's breaking the rules too," he said, and then laughed until it spiralled up into giggles.

Radek set a hand on Evan's chest. Evan sobered, staring at Radek's frown. It was even deeper now. "They are not together," Radek said, and Evan giggled, one short, high-pitched laugh. "They're not," Radek insisted. "I would know - Rodney would brag."

That made Evan giggle even harder. The idea of McKay bragging about having Sheppard on his arm was possibly the funniest thing Evan had ever heard.

"When we get back," Evan said, fighting the urge to giggle some more, because he was slurring his words like he was as drunk as he'd been on the night he got his double bars, "I'm going to pay you back. For taking care of me."

Radek turned bright pink, a surprisingly cute color, Evan thought.

"It is not necessary," Radek said, staying just out of Evan's reach. "I was just-"

"No, really," Evan interrupted, before Radek could get any further into his refusal. "I owe you some serious payback."

Radek blinked at him for a moment; Evan tried to keep his expression solemn but another giggle broke through, and he couldn't help the broad grin plastered across his face. Radek smiled back, reaching a hand out to steady him as the jumper lifted off and headed for home.

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://scheherezhad.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**scheherezhad**](http://scheherezhad.dreamwidth.org/) who bought my services for [Sweet Charity](http://www.sweet-charity.net/). She asked for Lorne/Zelenka, angsty, stuck on a planet together. Hope this fits the bill! Set early S3.
> 
> Thanks to the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious icouldskateaway. Seriously, between cheerleading and nitpicking, she was a godsend. Any and all mistakes left are my own.


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